Monument to the 369th Regiment

A simple but dignified 12-foot tall black granite monument to the all-African-American 369th Regiment stands in a pleasant garden plot opposite the troop’s historic drill hall.  Installed in 2006, it replicates a monument in France to the efforts of the troop during WWI and contains the troop’s rattlesnake insignia and crest.

Greenstreets at West 138th Street

The Greenstreets program provides a pretty triangle of floral plantings at West 138th Street, an unusual traffic island in Manhattan’s grid and one of only two to border Fifth Avenue (the other stretches the block between 24th/23rd Streets and is known as Flatiron Public Square).  The dab of color and shade are a pleasant accent… Continue reading

Courtney Callender Playground at West 130th – 131st Streets and Fifth Avenue

This playground honors Courtney Callender (1937-1983), New York City’s first African American Deputy Commissioner of Cultural Affairs and the first African American official in Parks under Commissioner Thomas Hoving and Executive Director Henry J. Stern. He established the Community Relations division, which initiated the policy of including the neighborhoods in park decisions. Callender served as… Continue reading

Collyer Brothers Park, West 128th Street & Fifth Avenue

Collyer Brothers Park occupies the former site of the Collyer House, occupied by the eccentric and reclusive Collyer Brothers, Homer and Langley, who made headlines in 1947 when an anonymous phone call reported a dead body at the site.  Police found the bed-ridden Homer dead of starvation and – three weeks later – Langley’s body… Continue reading

Marcus Garvey Park

Originally named Mount Morris Park, Marcus Garvey Park was renamed in 1973 after the Pan-Africanist movement founder Marcus Garvey, who was a noted early Black Nationalist.  Dominated by a vast “berg” (Dutch for hill) of schist, the park was an early lookout for first the Native Americans of the area and then Hessian soldiers during… Continue reading